Personal Note From Suzanne while in India June 2013

I am once again in India for a few weeks. At this time in my life I marvel at how much I seem to be on the road.

It was like this when I was a dancer with all the touring and shows in other places and locations. Then for many years I was mostly traveling to Los Angeles and back. Now once again I am traveling to other countries and places. In many ways it is a wondrous stretch regardless of where I am.

Travel opens the eyes and awakens the senses to other realities and ways of being. 

I read recently that if a child learns another language he or she is more adaptable to changing circumstances and life's challenges. Many years ago when I lived in Berlin, learning to adapt to another culture and language was such a stretch that I realized that everyone should travel to other countries if at all possible. 

What you learn is that people are all the same and our hearts all beat as one. We feel the same feelings, suffer the same losses and love deeply the same way. We are not that different and yet culturally how we move on a daily basis can be very different. What we adapt to as normal is tremendously different culture to culture, religion to religion, country to country. And it is time for all of us to stop making stories up about other ways and other types of people. This negative thought pattern that "they" are bad or wrong people is tremendously harmful to societies. It is the main cause of war and suffering. We need to see that regardless of what you believe underneath our skin color, beliefs systems, or education we are all humans with feelings and we are all striving to do our very best sometimes under very difficult circumstances.

As American's we have so much. We are blessed in so many ways that until you are in other countries and see the struggles and challenges that others face daily you cannot truly appreciate what a gift this life is to you right now.

When I see the challenges of people in India just to have clean water to drink and a place where people and animals are not living on top of garbage piles, my compassionate heart almost breaks. 

There is so much money in the world and it astounds me that those with the most cannot seem to work together to find ways to solve obvious challenges. All the challenges I see are fixable but the cost is high. I can see how expensive infrastructure is to create. But isn't world peace worth it?

How much money is enough? What do we really need to survive? What can we do in small ways to support others?

I try to do my small part. I donate to saving the pit bulls. I find if we have compassion for animals then we can have compassion for others. I donate to Tibet Aid where for $35 per month I can feed a family of 5, give education in Tibetan culture, English language, and Chinese culture classes as well as get medical care for those children in Tibet for illness such as polio, etc. I find it is amazing what $35 can do each month for another family. I may not be able to save the world but I can save a part of it. Saving one family is still saving one family. Giving love and shelter to those animals that are misunderstood, tortured, and suffering, somehow deepens my consciousness.

While I am here in India I do not buy stuff, I tip those helping me. I know that American's have this reputation that we throw cash as everything but I try to help those that are working and are attempting to do an honest days work. That does not mean that I do not follow my intuition and when I see a veteran on the street begging that if I feel a heart connection I will also gift him with money. I may not be able to save everyone but for one day they might be able to eat and relax.

I challenge each of you to reach within and find where your heart is touched by something, then follow that heart and allow it to love and connect to others in a way that expands love.  

My teachers always told me that the only thing you get to take with you to the other side that lights your way through the darkness into the divine is the love and compassion that you have shared with others. I choose to live with that thought in my heart on a daily basis.

Remember, we all have days when we are able to stay in conscious awareness and clarity and others where we feel as if we are failing. But you never fail when you remember that you are love and you then bring yourself back into the awareness that allows you to find peace, happiness, and joy in the smallest expression of compassion. Have a wonderful month.